Vessels conduct controlled burns that are part of a coordinated federal, state and local effort to minimize the amount of oil in the water near the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site in the Gulf of Mexico, Sunday, June 13, 2010. More than 165 controlled burns have been conducted, removing a total of more than 3.85 million gallons of oil from the open water. (Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Paul Rooney)
According to a June 16 report from AFP, BP was deploying a second ship Tuesday, June 15, to the Gulf of Mexico, where crews will burn up to 10,000 barrels of oil per day in a bid to significantly boost efforts to stem the massive leak. The controlled burn method, deployed at the direction of the U.S. federal government, would expand total spill containment capacity to 20,000 to 28,000 barrels per day, a team of U.S. officials said. The ship, called the Q4000, does not have enough capacity to store oil and continuously barging it to shore would involve significant safety risks due to the sheer number of vessels in the area, officials said.
(Source: AFP)